Partnership Matters
In Healthcare Timing Can Be Everything
When Ohio’s governor required all healthcare systems to cancel non-essential appointments and surgeries due to COVID-19, we knew families with medically fragile kids were still counting on us. So we looked for the safest ways to treat them, and we found it in an innovative approach we’d already been using.
Telehealth—providing medical care via video call or telephone— started to play a bigger role for our families. And we were ready, thanks in part to generous investments and forethought by donors like the Maxon Foundation, US Bank N.A., Trustee.
Building on the legacy of Glenway Maxon, Jr., a native of Dayton, Ohio, the foundation has supported our telehealth program for more than five years. It honors Mr. Maxon’s commitment to ensuring more people are able to reach medical specialists when they need them.
The foundation invests in Cincinnati Children’s because of our reputation for using technology to provide leading-edge care and advance new therapies. With their gifts, we’ve been able to reach people in their own homes—breaking down barriers like traveling far distances, having to take time off work or finding childcare for siblings. And our own experts have used the Maxon Foundation’s support to create virtual networks with physicians in rural areas to help elevate the level of care available.
“Telemedicine is the future of medicine,” says Derek Wheeler, MD, our Chief of Staff. “This is a great way to be able to provide the kinds of subspecialty consultations and care where a patient needs us.”
Using what we learned with the Maxon Foundation’s help, we’ve been able to quickly ramp up use of these innovative tools, like CincyKids Health Connect, which gives children in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana access to emergency medicine specialists through video appointments for minor illnesses and injuries.
And when the world comes out of this pandemic, we’ll continue to build on all we’ve learned—providing access to expert care for all those counting on us.
